BRYAN C. HASSEL is Co-President of Public Impact. He consults nationally with leading public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and foundations working for dramatic improvements in K–12 education. He co-leads the Opportunity Culture initiative and is a recognized expert on teacher and principal effectiveness, school turnarounds, school funding systems, and charter school excellence. His work has appeared in Education Next, Education Week, and numerous other publications. He was named to the spring 2015 class of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellows Program, designed to support exceptional leaders reimagining U.S. public schools. Dr. Hassel received his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University and his master’s degree in politics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his B.A. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he attended as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. He is a senior research affiliate with the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
Example projects: Dr. Hassel’s recent work includes co-leading Public Impact’s efforts to help schools create an Opportunity Culture by extending the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for higher pay, within budget; assisting numerous states in developing their strategies for addressing chronically low-performing schools; and co-leading Public Impact’s work transforming the charter sector to expand successful models, implement rigorous performance frameworks, and replace failing charter schools more swiftly. He authored the Brookings Institution Press book The Charter School Challenge: Avoiding the Pitfalls, Fulfilling the Promise, and co-authored, with Emily Ayscue Hassel, Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child’s School with Confidence, and the chapter on rethinking school staffing in the book Getting the Most Bang for the Education Buck. His recent publications include co-authoring the op-ed Will Learning Pods Be Only for the Rich?; ESSA: New Law, New Opportunity; State Leaders, Seize ESSA’s Opportunities for Excellence (op-ed); Paid Educator Residencies, Within Budget: How New School Models Can Radically Improve Teacher and Principal Preparation; and An Excellent Principal for Every School: Transforming Schools Into Leadership Machines. Dr. Hassel has also served as a consultant to leading efforts to create high-quality charter school systems, turn around failing schools, and improve leader and teacher effectiveness.
Why I Do This Work: “I’ve witnessed educational inequity and its disastrous consequences since my childhood, going to elementary school in the early years of desegregation. And I’ve been inspired by the power of excellent teachers to completely change that reality. Now, in co-founding and co-leading Public Impact, I have the chance to get up every morning and help extend their reach.”
